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Do Emotions Trump Facts?

Do Emotions Trump Facts?

Those of us who like to believe that human beings are rational can sometimes have a hard time trying to explain what is going on in politics. It is still a puzzle to me how millions of patriotic Americans could have voted in 2008 for a man who for 20 years — TWENTY YEARS — was a follower of a preacher who poured out his hatred for America in the most gross gutter terms.

Today’s big puzzle is how so many otherwise rational people have become enamored of Donald Trump, projecting onto him virtues and principles that he clearly does not have, and ignoring gross defects that are all too blatant.

There was a time when someone who publicly mocked a handicapped man would have told us all we needed to know about his character, and his political fling would have been over. But that was before we became a society where common decency is optional.

Yet there are even a few people with strong conservative principles who have lined up with this man, whose history has demonstrated no principles at all, other than an ability to make self-serving deals, and who has shown what Thorstein Veblen once called “a versatility of convictions.”

With the Iowa caucuses coming up, it is easy to understand why Iowa governor Terry Branstad is slamming Trump’s chief rival, Senator Ted Cruz, who has opposed massive government subsidies to ethanol, which have dumped tons of taxpayer money on Iowa for growing corn. Iowa’s Senator Charles Grassley has come right out and said that is why he opposes Senator Cruz.

Former Senator Bob Dole, an establishment Republican if ever there was one, has joined the attacks on Ted Cruz, on grounds that Senator Cruz is disliked by other politicians.

When Senator Dole was active, he was liked by both Democrats and Republicans. He joined the long list of likable Republican candidates for president that the Republican establishment chose– and that the voters roundly rejected.

With both establishment Republicans and anti-establishment Republicans now taking sides with Donald Trump, it is hard to see what principle– if any– is behind his support.

Some may see Trump’s success in business as a sign that he can manage the economy. But the great economist David Ricardo, two centuries ago, pointed out that business success did not mean that someone understands economic issues facing a nation.

Trump boasts that he can make deals, among his many other boasts. But is a deal-maker what this country needs at this crucial time? Is not one of the biggest criticisms of today’s Congressional Republicans that they have made all too many deals with Democrats, betraying the principles on which they ran for office?

Bipartisan deals — so beloved by media pundits — have produced some of the great disasters in American history.

Contrary to the widespread view that the Great Depression of the 1930s was caused by the stock market crash of 1929, unemployment never reached double digits in any of the 12 months that followed the stock market crash in October, 1929.

Unemployment was 6.3 percent in June 1930 when a Democratic Congress and a Republican president made a bipartisan deal that produced the Smoot-Hawley tariffs. Within 6 months, unemployment hit double digits — and stayed in double digits throughout the entire decade of the 1930s.

You want deals? There was never a more politically successful deal than that which Neville Chamberlain made in Munich in 1938. He was hailed as a hero, not only by his own party but even by opposition parties, when he returned with a deal that Chamberlain said meant “peace for our time.” But, just one year later, the biggest, bloodiest and most ghastly war in history began.

If deal-making is your standard, didn’t Barack Obama just make a deal with Iran — one that may have bigger and worse consequences than Chamberlain’s deal?

What kind of deals would Donald Trump make? He has already praised the Supreme Court’s decision in “Kelo v. City of New London” which said that the government can seize private property to turn it over to another private party.

That kind of decision is good for an operator like Donald Trump. Doubtless other decisions that he would make as president would also be good for Donald Trump, even if for nobody else.

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

Well, you certainly can’t call Dr. Sowell a Trump-bot when you realize that the good doctor joined twenty-some other GOP Establishment types in a National Review Magazine ‘dump Trump campaign’ designed to deny him a chance at the nomination.

As I witness the incompetence coming from local, state and federal government offices, I believe I can answer your question, Dr. Sowell. I want CHANGE! I’ve heard an old tale about first you have to get a donkey’s attention by hitting him in the head with a 2×4 – well, that is exactly what Mr. Trump is figuratively doing. Ordinary American citizens who are busy with their families and little league and church and scouting programs are FED UP with the corruption and unacceptable performance of our government.

Whether it is the DOD spending hundreds of millions of our hard-earned tax dollars to build unnecessary projects in Afghanistan while cutting the strength of our military, or the Veterans Administration handing out bonuses to incompetent workers who have, by neglect, allowed our vets to die rather than be treated for their medical problems, or a State & Justice Department intent on hiding illegal emails by a SECRETARY OF STATE…we are soooo tired of the CORRUPTION!!!

I hope this helps explain the appreciation we all have of a man having the courage to say the heck with political correctness…he is simply uttering words that are being spoken at dinner tables all across the country! We are TIRED of our hard work and tax dollars being wasted on frivolous projects, jobs being shipping overseas while families are hurting, American workers being let go from good-paying jobs while having to train their foreign replacements.

Trump, as a life long Progressive, is part and parcel of the corruption you decry. He even praised the corrupt SecState Hillary to the skies. Trump is fooling you with his acting; he is taking advantage of your frustration. Go read Cruz’s book – I think you will have a change of heart.

And doesn’t Ted Cruz do and say the same thing? The difference is that Ted Cruz is a proven life-long true conservative, whereas Trump is a self-serving flip-flopper who has changed positions more than a girl in a cat house. There is not, and never has been, any question about Ted Cruz’s stance on any issue, belief in any principle or whose interest he represents. He is being vilified for telling the truth and standing up to the Republican “establishment” which is a code word for RINO Club.

“The Donald” does whatever is in the best interest of “The Donald” and says whatever is in the best interest of “The Donald.” He is running for president because he is power-hungry and will say and/or do anything that furthers that cause.

Donald Trump is NOT a corrupt, lying, self-serving, destructive professional politician! He may not be politically correct in accordance with the politically correct gestapo. But I believe he is as fed up with the corrupt, lying, self-serving, destructive professional politician as the majority of the citizens are.
Hell look at what the Liberal Democrats are trying to con us with…unethical, lying Hil-Liar-y.
Professional politician do not serve the will of the people, they serve themselves and will do anything to stay in power over the citizens.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHY WE NEED DONALD TRUMP AND TED CRUZ! 🙂

Texas Guy, my one big fear about Cruz is, as you say,he is vilified and LOATHED by BOTH Commucrats and RINOs. And because we’re going to need EVERY possible vote–including RINOs and disaffected Democrats–to overcome the Commucrats’ HUGE electoral vote advantage due to controlling all the big cities, and thus most of the voting population in key electoral states, the question is, how can Cruz POSSIBLY win, when he will be attacked from ALL SIDES, including his OWN party? ESPECIALLY since the general public seems NO less clueless and gullible NOW than when a bunch of the MORE clueless elected Obama?

I grant you Trump is not the perfect candidate, but he IS attracting disaffected Democrat voters, and is the ONLY one of the GOP candidates doing so, which means he COULD win. And if he DOES win, at least he won’t be owned body and soul by his campaign contributors. In my mind, he is the only one who seems to have a PRAYER of overcoming all the advantages the COMMUCRATS have built into the electoral process to keep themselves in power.

You all, including Dr Sowell, make the erroneous assumption that America is voting for a president in 2016. And although the calendar says it’s time, nothing could be farther from the truth. The American Revolution (which according to John Adams was NOT the Revolutionary WAR, but came before the war) took a lot of work (and a fair amount of time) from a lot of people…two generations of them, in fact.

Whether we remember their names or not isn’t the point. The point is, Trump may win the election. But he is unlikely to actually become president. Just wait and see the things no one would ever believe politicians in America capable of doing happen right before your eyes. If there’s one thing about Trump, he’s great at pantsing people. So just be sure you don’t get pantsed.

Me? I figure Trump has about as much chance of becoming president as Samuel Adams. But he’s sure useful. Next we need to figure out how to create a political party that can not be taken over by elite and professional politicians. It certainly won’t be by doing things the same way as our current parties. If you prefer professional politicians, Dr Sowell, well then, I guess you are well and truly pantsed as a political elite. And I’m not interested in anything else you have to say.

How can you, Dr Sowell, still not get it? Trump supporters are tired of the RINO Ruling Class Club promising their base what they would do when elected, and then making excuses why they can’t do what they promised, and not even putting up a decent rebuttal to Obama or Harry Reid. It all looks like a sham. Trump, for all his defects, is not a member of the RINO Ruling Class Club, and echoes what the voters want done, even if in reality he might not be able to do what he promises. If you don’t trust the other candidates, he is the last one standing.

As for Bob Dole… good grief. Who cares what he says, except the RINO Ruling Class CLub members. He was more like a Boehner than a Gingrich.

You’re precisely correct in one sense, in that many, many people, including me, are sick and tired of electing people who say one thing to get in office but then do something quite the opposite when they get there. Ted Cruz is the one person who said exactly what he would do if elected and then did exactly that.

So you think you want a “deal maker” in the White House? We had one as Speaker of the House – how did that work out? We now have another one as Speaker of the House – how is that working out? We have one as Senate Majority Leader – how is that working out? We don’t need “deals.” We need somebody who espouses and will uphold conservative principles; someone who WILL rock the boat; someone who believes in the Rule of Law rather than the rule of men.

Wake up – Trump is for Trump; that’s who he has always been, who he is and who he will always be.

Texas Guy, I agree with you that Cruz is the “best” candidate in terms of Conservative ideology and that he does what he says he will do. But what DIFFERENCE does any of that make if he CAN’T WIN and we end up with HILLARY or that senile old Communist BERNIE for 4 years?

I don’t think we can survive four more years of COMMUCRAT rule as a Constitutional Republic. Obama has gone a LONG way toward “fundamentally transforming” us into something ELSE altogether. THAT reality–and the political games you have to play to divert a gullible and CLUELESS voting public from committing national and cultural SUICIDE by electing another Commucrat to finish the destruction Obama started–is why we had BETTER nominate the guy who can WIN, because if he can’t WIN, it won’t MATTER how great a candidate he is.

For a long time, I thought Trump could be the answer for America. I no longer feel this way. Donald trump is speaking what most of us are thinking. I have followed Ted Cruz from the beginning and listened to what he says and watched what he does. Ted is the real deal! If there is anything false in him, I have not seen it. Trump is about Trump. Ted Cruz is a fighter and will fight for America.

We cannot vote Trump in as a compromise candidate to appease everybody in DC. We have tried this compromise approach in the past even with Republicans controling the majority in both houses and look at what happened, we recently gave Obama everything he wanted.

Trump has a lot of people reacting on emotion. Sure we are fed up and angry at the way things are now but lets not vote on emotion but on the record of the candidate. Cruz has a strong conservative record Trump cannot duplicate no matter how much he talks. Talk is cheap.

In my view Trump is a progressive and an opportunist and will never adhere to the constitution like Cruz will. He reminds me of Obama in his lofty, and high ideals. Look what Obama has done to our nation. Our nation needs a true conservative more than ever at this time to clean out the “status quo” corruption in DC on both sides of the aisle.

Like most of the people are saying, we’re tired of the political rhetoric that is going on. the politicians that are above the law, uses the Supreme Court to change our Constitution, rewriting our laws as they see fit, we’re not electing a king, this is the top political office, Commander and Chief. And is supposed to work with the Congress and the Senate, abide by the rules of our Constitution. if he does that then it’s a win-win situation for all of us. And technically his business skills might be a little, crude ruthless and probably a few other things. he still has to look out for us We the People because we all have to work together to survive in this world chaos.

Got to look at this a Different Way, Ted Cruz is a professional politician, we train them in schools and colleges, make them lawyers so that they can write rules and laws so that common, blue-collar worker, middle-class and the poor taxpayer. So that We the people can’t understand,or they say trust us you don’t understand, so they can achieve their agendas. Trump is a businessman and he will hire the lawyers and people he needs to do the jobs that he needs to be done for, yes his reasons as well as our reasons.

It’s way past silly to say that all whites are racists, that all conservatives are gun-totin’, Bible-clingin’ extremists, that all pitbulls are ferocious. It’s just as silly to put all politicians under the same blanket. Ronald Reagan was a politician and look how good he was for us. In this era of technology, I find it frustrating to see so many not taking advantage of the tools we have to research our politicians and billion $ moguls. Cruz may be a politician but he’s also anti-establishment. He calls out the liars and deal-makers who “go along to get along” and fights them tooth and nail. When we do our own research we are often surprised that what we hear on TV, at campaign rallies, in the local diner, etc. is far from the truth. Just like you, I’ve had enough! But I’m smart enough to know that, just because someone says what I want to hear (like most politicians) it doesn’t mean they’re going to do what they say, especially if they have 0 experience nor give us a hint as to how they plan on fulfilling those promises. And if those who are guilty of fooling us with empty promises and making deals that are bad for us commoners are now endorsing Trump it makes me even more wary of him. The test is to look at someone’s past and stop listening to the hubub. Trump changes his stand on any given issue based on how much money it will make him. If we only see that he’s pro eminent domain, that should be enough to scare us. Talk vs. action.

We use the rule of law and our constitution to do whats right and get things done for our nation and for “we the people” and not with more meddling lawyers. Obama is the example supreme as to what happens when you break the law and side step our constitution to get things done unlawfuly with his DOJ lawyers.

as usual, mr sowell hits the nail on the had. however, like pretty much everyone else who has nothing kind to say about trump, there is much more to this. the 2 ost obvious to me are;
1. the gop establishment will do the exact same thing they’ve always done and get the exact results they always get. they will promote who they want regardless of what’s best for the public, america or the world. this means we’ll get another rino named bush.
2. republicans dont do battle w/ dems the way dems do battle w/ republicans. the old ‘we arent like them, we are better than that
means losing another election. dems will walk lock step into the polls even if they nominate a thieving, child rapist all the while ranting how republicans are lock step fascists.
the fact is, i can find issue with everyone who is running, including trump, cruz and rubio. they are all part of the problem and dont see any problem with their perspective(s). however, if trump gets the nomination somehow, you can bet your bottom dollar he’s a far cry better than bernie or hillary, so that’s where anyone who doesnt want another 8 years of the destruction of america should vote for him rather than staying home or voting 3rd party, which also never works regardless of how much a person breaks their arm patting themselves on the back for standing up for their principles.

inertman, I absolutely agree! It does is NO good to nominate the perfect, ideologically pure candidate if he CAN’T WIN.

Cruz may well BE the best qualified candidate, but he is LOATHED by both Commucrats and the GOP establishment, and without ALL the GOP votes and at least SOME of the Democrat votes, we CANNOT WIN because the Dems have such a HUGE advantage in key electoral states because they control the big city voter population centers.

Trump is the ONLY candidate attracting votes from BOTH GOP and disaffected Democrats, and probably the ONLY one who can win in this current messed up political climate. And we CANNOT lose if we want to survive as a free republic. And yes, I DO believe the 2016 election is THAT crucial to our survival.

I just hope we actually HAVE a 2016 election, and Obama doesn’t pull some martial law banana republic dictator SURPRISE to prevent that election taking place. I just CAN’T see that EGOMANIAC risking his precious “legacy” falling into the hands of a Republican who will undo most if not ALL of what he has done. And he has already demonstrated he has NO QUALMS at all about violating the Constitution to get what he wants.

This country and our liberties have NEVER been in greater peril, and will CONTINUE to be until we finally get that lying MUSLIM TRAITOR out of our White House and out of power.

I’m finding the notion of not voting for the right person, but voting for the wrong person because he’s more likely to win, makes me just as nauseated as not bothering to vote at all because we probably won’t win anyway. When we only vote to win, we just may get stuck with another loser. And we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves for caving in, doing the easy thing, rather than doing everything in our power to make sure we vote in a winner.

Et Tu Sowell? Et Tu? *sigh* Let me spell it out real clear like so even a brilliant pundit like yourself will understand. Trump and Cruz have a plan. Cruz would never get in on his own. Especially against an over bloated and over inflated democratic coalition that has wrangled and tongue tied a majority republican house and senate.

Trump is the door kicker in-er, Cruz is his following. Trump does a term and gets the ball rolling, Cruz his Veep, runs and gains two terms based on his principles and ethics and conservatism. Get it now? Understand what they are doing? Trump’s a self made man. All those others you mentioned are bought and paid for politicians. Understand that? Do you understand how you are measuring a citizen whose a self made billionaire doesn’t compare to your bought and paid for political elites? You are comparing a domesticated dog with wolves for crying out loud! Not even close other then a thin linage.

Our establishment, your words not mine, is broken horribly. It’s become a feeding trough for red and blue to come and make themselves millionaires while pretending to do the states business. It’s absolutely all theater at this point and we the people see it clearly and right through the thin veneer of PC slicked up speech that supposedly proves who someone is and is not; again, by your own definition.

The establishment hates Cruz. The establishment will accept, now, Trump. Get one in and set the Cruz control! Got it now?

mystic, you are right on. Cruz CANNOT win this election as President. Trump is the ONLY one who is attracting enough votes from BOTH sides of the political fence to win, but Cruz would mae a DANDY running mate, and once he is VP, would have a MUCH easier time getting elected the next time. In the meantime, we would get the damned COMMUCRATS out of the governmental driver’s seat, and THAT is crucial to the survival of our country.

Folks:
William Buckley the founder of National Review himself called Trump a narcissist and a demagogue. You can just cut deals just to get along with everyone.

Donald Trump is as conservative as Obama and Hillary are. Trump rarely mentions the constitution in his speeches which a president must uphold and execute.

If we realy want change in our nation we have to return to our conservative and Judaeo-Christian values which Trump does not exhibit or believes in.
Please do not vote on emotion or out of frustration. Vote for the record of the candidate.
Ted Cruz is my choice.

What Trump has done as a businessman will be different as a President. No one can really predict what he will do. He has been showing bits and pieces of what he will do but it is enough to predict him precisely. As he has been saying all along, he wants to be unpredictable. My assessment of him is he will do the right thing for his country, our country. The others have not shown they will do the same so Trump is good enough for me.

Evidently, you’ve never seen Cruz call out Mitch McConnell for being the consummate liar and making back-room deals. You’ve never seen him call out the entire Senate and Congress in general. You must know nothing of his record and moral character. Cruz is anti-establishment and isn’t concerned with making deals. He’s concerned with bucking the establishment and reducing the size of it. And you must not know Trump’s record if you think he’d make a better president (i.e. supporting liberal causes infinitely more often than conservative and cutting deals to make a buck). You must believe that Trump will put aside his multi-billion $ interests to do what’s right for us even if it means a hit to his empire. Trump has been effective; he has awakened the weary conservative base and that needed to be done. But don’t think for one minute that just because he says something he’s carving it in stone. At least we have evidence of what Cruz will do. Please compare the records of the two.

Cape conservative, exactly what you mention I been said to some people, lots of us are tired of voting and nobody listen, false promises by our representatives in both houses and the president god save us from cataclims. we have to hit bottom in order to fix this huge mess our beloved country is.

For some reason, too many seem to forget how villified Ronald Reagan was when he was running…a former Democrat…an actor…a pretty guy with good hair – sound familiar? I truly believe the American people are going to rise up out of their chairs and open their windows and yell “We aren’t going to take it anymore!” They WILL show up at the voting booths, and yes, we have some Democrat neighbors who just may become Trump democrats. Donald Trump speaks American! And as RR did, I believe he will surround himself with knowledgeable cabinet members, and unlike the current person in the oval office, he WILL listen to their advice! Of that I am truly convinced! Our military must be led by military generals, not by assistants to the president who don’t know a thing about the military. I believe Donald Trump WILL attend IN PERSON his daily briefings…and I believe Donald Trump WILL listen to his military advisers. Donald J. Trump 2016